WATERBURY — Joey Cipriano's resume begins something like this: started driving at 3; raced for fun from ages 4 to 6; registered his first competitive win at 7.

For as long as the 17-year-old Kaynor Tech senior can remember, he's wanted to race cars for a living.

"To be honest, I couldn't tell you when I started dreaming about being a professional race car driver," Cipriano said. "It was definitely before I started racing. It was what I wanted to do since I first told my dad I wanted to race go-karts from watching NASCAR. I always thought that would be the coolest job to have."

Cipriano is taking a big step toward that goal this spring as he's moving up from the weekly local short track racing at Stafford Motor Speedway to the more competitive challenge of the Modified Racing Series, which tours throughout the Northeast.

The past two years, Cipriano enjoyed a lot of success racing in Stafford's SK Modified Lights division. After two seasons of racing the smaller Legend Cars at Waterford, he wanted to challenge himself in full-size race cars. The SK Lights proved to be perfect for him.

He finished third in the point standings two years ago in his first season of SK Lights, winning two races and finishing in the top five in 14 of his 24 races. He became the first 15-year-old to win a race at

See CIPRIANO, Page 3C

Stafford.

Last season, he finished second in the SK Lights point standings, winning six races at Stafford and also winning one each at Thompson Speedway and Waterford.

"To do as well as we did was huge," Cipriano said. "It definitely gave me a confidence boost to know we could go to the track each week and be competitive in the bigger cars and that we had what it took to win races."

After winning 61 races, six series championships and 14 awards at lower levels of racing, Cipriano now believes he's ready to step up again to a much faster car capable of 140 mph on the tracks he will race.

"We think making this move into an even bigger car in a more competitive series will make me a better driver," Cipriano said. "I liked the idea of racing at different tracks because I think that will help me get used to going other places and adapting to conditions and tracks. This car has a lot more power, too. So it will be fun to prove I can drive it."

He hopes that next level will be the NASCAR Modified Tour. He knows that may still be three to four years away because he has to prove that he can make the step up this year from the 350-horsepower engines of the SK Lights to the 650-hp engines of the tour-type SK Modifieds.

For now he will attempt to do that in a car he's borrowed from his uncle, Warren Mordenti. Cipriano's grandfather, Billy Mordenti, had Chassis Dynamics in Oxford build him a chassis of his own, but the car isn't completely ready.

He will race today at Monadnock Speedway in New Hampshire with his uncle's car, and then hope his crew will have him in his own car by May 20 at Thompson.

His crew chief is Brian Plourde of Waterbury with the other main crew members being his father Joe Cipriano, Tim Plourde, Bill Walcott of Thomaston and Cliff Burrell of Burrville. Other crew members include Sylvia Crunden, Dana Jannetty, Kevin Pelletier, mother Cindy Cipriano and Jennifer Cipriano.

He loves the team he has behind him. Even though he is studying automotive technology at Kaynor Tech, he concentrates on the driving and lets his crew prepare the car.

"Those guys know a lot more than I do, and they are awesome to have around," Cipriano said. "They will be there five nights out of the week if they have to in order to get the car ready for (today). They have it all covered, and they are good at what they do."

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